From the Pastor
June/25/2010
After returning from my recent sojourn to Rome at the close of the “Year For Priests,” I found some interesting developments in our country regarding serious discrepancies between the teaching authority of the Church (that rests with the Pope and Bishops [Magisterium]) and the resistance by some members of our Church, including some rather influential members, to that teaching authority. I bring this to your attention because of the ever-present danger of eroding the teachings of our Church in matters that seriously affect the life of our faith and our country.
It seems that a real “battle royal” had been brewing steadily between the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops and the Catholic Health Association over the recently passed health care reform of President Obama. Sister Carol Keehan, CEO and President of the Catholic Health Association (CHA) openly acted in favor of President Obama’s health care reform and in opposition to persistent requests from the bishops, said Cardinal Francis George, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), during their recent spring meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida. During the bishops' executive session held last Tuesday morning to address the fallout of CHA’s support for the health care legislation despite the bishop's opposition, Cardinal George recounted the events that took place prior to President Obama's signing of the health care reform.
The cardinal then concluded his remarks by criticizing CHA and Sr. Keehan, saying they have created a dangerous precedent of a parallel magisterium (teaching body) to the teaching authority of the bishops. In the events leading up to the final health care vote, the USCCB president, Cardinal George of Chicago, presented arguments on how the Bishops' Conference “remained consistent to the two guiding principles throughout the whole process: number one, everyone should have access to health care; number two, no one should be killed.” The consistent moral position of the bishops, Cardinal George explained, centered around the protection of life, conscience protections, and the inclusion of immigrants. “The Conference never backed down on these issues,” he forcefully stated. According to the Archbishop of Chicago, when the Stupak Amendment was defeated in the Senate in December 2009, “everything went south.” That is when “the Catholic Health Association and other so-called Catholic groups provided cover for those on the fence to support Obama and the administration.” Cardinal George clearly remarked that “Sr. Carol and her colleagues are to blame” for the passage of the health care bill. He continued by revealing that the bishops repeatedly tried to reach out to Sr. Keehan, both before and after the vote. “I personally met with her in March, to no avail,” the cardinal reported.
In April, three bishops of the USCCB ‘ad hoc’ Health Care Concerns Committee, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, also met with Sr. Keehan to try to make her understand the bishops’ concerns, and thus bring CHA back in line with Church teachings; however the meeting concluded with “the same frustrating results.”
The president of the USCCB reiterated the bishop's fundamental opposition to the health care reform. “The bill which was passed is fundamentally flawed. The Executive Order is meaningless. Sr. Carol is mistaken in thinking that this is pro-life legislation,” Cardinal George emphatically said. The cardinal also expressed disappointment with CHA “and other so-called Catholic groups” because, “in the end, they have weakened the moral voice of the bishops in the U.S.”
In that regard, Cardinal George highlighted that the USCCB and CHA’s positions on Obama’s health care are not just “two equally valid conclusions inspired in the same Catholic teaching,” and reiterated that what the bishops said on May 21 in their statement “Setting the record Straight” is and will remain the official position of the USCCB on the contentious issue.
The document, presented by Daniel Cardinal DiNardo (Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities), Bishop William Murphy (of Rockville Centre, New York, and ) and Bishop John Wester (of Salt Lake City, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Immigration), says: "As Bishops, we disagree that the divergence between the Catholic Conference and Catholic organizations, including the Catholic Health Association, represents merely a difference of analysis or strategy (Catholic Health World, April 15, 2010, “Now That Reform Has Passed”). Rather, for whatever good will was intended, it represented a fundamental disagreement, not just with our staff, as some maintain, but with the Bishops themselves. “As such, it has resulted in confusion and a wound to Catholic unity."
We need to be observant about these and future developments that affect the life and health of the People of God, especially as it pertains to those who are united under the mantle of the Catholic Church’s leadership throughout the world. The danger persists that when the media and society at large construct a scenario against the Church, because of the moral weaknesses of some of its leaders and members, it will use such a setting to try to gain a greater foothold on the means to further damage the Christ-founded institution and dismember it, piece by piece. That’s why we must continually be on guard against the wiles of the Evil One, and to pray for the protection of our Catholic Church, its true leaders, and the Faith of our Fathers.
Very Rev. Canon Tom